Direct Mail Marketing

Since 1984 Best Mailing Lists has been helping clients with their direct marketing campaigns. Many people think direct marketing is the same as direct mail. They are not. Direct marketing is a method of selling and direct mail is just one medium that's used in direct marketing. Lots of other popular direct marketing media are also used - things like:

5. Card decks - present the potential customer with many different offers from many marketers all in one package of cards.

6. Package inserts - little flyers or brochures placed in billing statements or in the boxes of products that are delivered by mail.

7. Free-standing inserts - usually inserted in newspapers and include response devices.

8. Internet banner ads - placed on Websites and invite you to "click here" to place an order.

9. Opt-in e-mail - sent by marketers to e-mail addresses with an offer and which incurs no printing and postage costs.

Less frequently used direct marketing media include counter displays with "take one" cards to mail in and even matchbook covers that make an offer and provide a tiny coupon and a toll-free number.

But of all these media, direct mail is the leader in terms of the number of people who are reached annually and in terms of consistent success. The reason? Direct mail is an extremely targetable, powerful, and cost-effective medium - which has won broad consumer acceptance.

Many, many people think that advertising and direct marketing / direct mail are the same thing. The misconception is so common that we want to take a minute to set the record straight. Advertising - so called general advertising is not a method of selling or a channel of distribution. Advertising is a form of marketing communications. General advertising and direct marketing can work well together at times, especially when campaigns in each medium are integrated in terms of targeting and timing.

The objectives of general advertising differ from those of direct marketing - and from direct mail. Advertising seeks to create, build, or maintain an awareness of and a desire for a product or service. Advertising, done well, can support the selling process. But its goal has only three main parts: gain Attention, stimulate Interest, and provoke Desire (AID). Advertising is an aid in the selling process. You want people to pay attention, take an interest in what you have to sell, and desire what you're selling enough to buy. But to take the next step, your prospect has to go to the store. (A store, a retailer, is a channel of distribution. If you're a package goods manufacturer or reseller of detergent, soup, or if you make things like apparel, automobiles, you need to get your merchandise into a store of some kind so that consumers can buy it. Otherwise, all the attention, interest, and desire you've spent big dollars on will be wasted).

On the flip side, direct marketing is not only a form of marketing communications, but it's also a channel of distribution. That's why direct marketing is ideal for small entrepreneurial businesses, as well as big established companies. With direct marketing, you don't need a store or showroom. You many need a warehouse, but in some cases you don't even need that. (If you can get a manufacturer to drop-ship merchandise to your customers, all you do is make the sale through one or more direct marketing media, take the orders, tell the manufacturer whom to ship to, and deposit the checks). So the difference between advertising and direct marketing is Action.

Remember, the goal of direct marketing / direct mail has four parts: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Action is the fourth step and the critical point of difference between general advertising and direct marketing / direct mail. An ad stops after the first three steps - attention, interest, and desire.

Direct marketing and direct mail urge the prospect or customer to take action and then provide the means to do so. Direct marketing and direct mail provide an order form or a coupon, a telephone or fax number, or a Website pr an e-mail address so that the consumer can actually respond to the offer right then and there without going to the store. In effect, you take the store, or the opportunity to the customer.

One telephone call to our toll free number at 800-692-2378 will help to make your direct marketing campaign a success, or fill out the following form.